Potty Training at Night - Garden Grove,CA

My sister has two boys. One boy is 5 and completely potty trained. The other is 6 and a half and he wears a pull up to bed. The doctor told her that part of the problem is that he sleeps heavily. He also said that in some boys it is common to wear them until age seven. Good luck!

My daughter was day potty trained at 2.2 - no sweat - but had an accident up until she was about 6.5 - We were told it was normal - 10% of children take up to 7 years old to be always dry at night. I'd give him another 6-12 months before worrying too much. Some kids sleep really hard and their blatter isn't large enough to hold it all night.
By the way... my daughter is 9.5 and doesn't have any issues - this too shall pass! :)

Info: "Bedwetting is common. More than 5 million children in the U.S. wet the bed at night." and "especially children under the age of 6 years. About 13% of 6-year-olds wet the bed, while about 5% of 10-year-olds do." and "Although the problem goes away over time, many children and even a small number of adults continue to have bedwetting episodes."

My oldest daughter NEVER wet the bed after being potty trained. My youngest daughter wet the bed maybe twice after being potty trained. My son? Wet the bed everynight FOREVER! As he got older it became less frequent, like every other day. by jr high, it was maybe once a week. He's in high school, and he still does every once in awhile.

You can buy night time underwear - that can be washed and worn again. It's a little more effective. We only used the overnight pullups when he was away from home. Because they were a little more discreet and he could toss them in the trash. by the time we got to jr hi, we quit using them and just changed the sheets.

There is a medication, ask your dr. We just chose not to take it except when he was away from home.

Be patient.

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/bed-wetting/DS00611/rss%3D1

http://www.bedwettingstore.com/Briefs/briefs_childrens_gr...

J.,

Boys especially have night time wetting issues long after we as parents think it should be over. My own two boys did ok, but my younger brother had multiple issues even into his teens. I was nearly out of high school when he was going through all this, so I have many memories of the issue. Pull ups didn't exist then, we used waterproof mattress covers and extra sheets folded up on his bed every night. We tried no liquid after 6 pm, we tried alarm clocks set to go off in the middle of the night, we tried those battery operated alarms that cliped to his underware and went off when it got wet.

Bottom line was this: He is a crazy deep sleeper and his bladder didn't grow as fast as the rest of his body. That made for wet beds night after night. We never punished him for it, it wasn't in his control.

I did a lot of research on the topic when I became the mother of boys. In a nutshell, take away the pull ups, put a plastic mattress cover on the bed and some kind of absorbent pad under him at night. Keep doing what you're doing with limited liquids, that's always a smart idea. He will outgrow it one of two ways. His bladder will catch up with the rest of his body or he will not like being wet during the night and will learn to wake up and use the bathroom if he needs to.

My oldest son did have an issue with wetting at the age of six after he'd had a major medical issues and had been hospitalized for a couple of weeks. He lost his bladder control for a while and was back in diapers for a short time. It took about a month and a half before he was able to control night time wetting issues again, but it took me just taking the pull ups away before he made the switch back to being dry.

Good luck, don't stress and worry about. They do grow out of it eventually.

Hi J.,
We are going through exact same thing, my daughter is going to be 5 in May, and still can't control bedtime wetness. I was told is still normal, and to keep the pull-ups, for as long as she need them, without making too much fuss about it, her bladder eventually will develop enough to allow her to "hold it" while sleep. But, as you say, pull-ups are expensive, and oddly enough, too effective (no feel of wetness, no spills) and we think she's just too comfortable with them to even try to go to the bathroom. About 4 months ago, we decided to try something else, so she's wearing cloth pull-ups at night, they are way less expensive (one cost about as one bag of pull-ups), they are also less effective, meaning, in this case, we have a wet bed about 25% of the time. But she's getting up to the bathroom more, and we're making progress, slowly, but surely. Another thing about the pull-ups, if she has a dry night (a good thing), you can't really re-use it, so it's a waste. Hope this helps a little.

I just wanted to say thanks for posting this...my oldest child is a girl and she was dry at night by age three..as for her two little brothers who are 4 and 5 ~ both still in night time pull ups. Its good to know that I am not alone in this issue. But I for one would rather deal with the pull ups (and I will use them twice if they are dry) then constantly changing sheets (not to mention the extra laundry)My oldest boy is 5.5 and he is dry nearly every day so we have currently started sleeping in underwear ~ so far there has only been two accidents in the last month. I also know that the accidents were due to the fact that he did NOT use the potty before bed, his daddy tucked them in that night and forgot =) Like most childhood things...this too shall pass and they will outgrow it. Love them anyway. God bless.

at this age he shouldn't be wearing a pull up at all. by wearing the pull up it doesn't allow him to feel/know that he is wet. Stopping the liquids before bed time is great but you may need to wake him up to use the bathroom when you or your husband wakes up to go to the bathroom. this worked with my son. i hope this helps yours. Good Luck!

wish i had advice. my son is now 8 1/2 and he went his first full week dry this past week!!!! i just keep buying nighttime diapers. i don't want to have me or him have to deal with the ordeal of changing sheets, etc. i've tried it all...homeopathic (walnuts and raisins) to rewards, to punishment, to...all of it!!!
you've gotta wait it out...love him through it and encourage! sorry, but know that you're not alone!!!!

My pediatrician told me that children that don't potty train all at once, and wet the bed only at night, could do so until 6 or 7 years of age. My daughter, who never had an accident during the day, would wet in her pull-up during the night. She said she really didn't know she was going to the bathroom; I think because she slept so hard at night. She finally stopped just before her 5th birthday! So, it is normal for your son to still be wetting his pull-up at night. Hopefully, for your sake (because of the cost of pull-ups), he, too, will quit before his 5th birthday!

My son just turned 6 and he still wears pullups at night. He mostly doesn't wet them, but I cant tell when it's going to happen so I figure it's fine for him to wear them just in case. (for example: one week, nothing, the next week he wet them twice!) To save money, I just reuse them for a night or 2 if they are totally dry in the morning! Dont worry too much--he'll get there when he's ready.

Different parts of the body grow at different rates... Maybe his bladder hasn't caught up with the rest of him. A lot of children suffer from bed-wetting, and as long as he doesn't continue to have problems by the time he's 9 then all should be okay. Don't worry, I know it's expensive, but this is probably just a growing problem that will correct itself with time.

Night-time "dryness" takes even up until 7 years old.
AND, "accidents" can still occur.
My daughter, was still wearing a night-time diaper at 5 years old. Then, she one day told us, she feels fine about not wearing it anymore. And indeed she was fine. We trusted her about it. BUT, when she sleeps DEEPLY... she sometimes still has accidents once in a great while... she being 7 years old now. Its okay. We use a waterproof bed pad under her.

I would not worry about it, unless you think he has a real medical problem.

One time, my daughter pee'd in bed at night. She told us it was because she was dreaming she WAS on the toilet... until she felt herself get wet. We thought it was funny. She just washed herself off, and changed pajamas, and I changed her bed pad and that was it. She went back to bed. Its no biggie.

If the cost of pull-ups are a concern, then just put him in underwear... BUT, realize that "accidents" can STILL occur. And if a child sleeps very deeply. Which is how my daughter can be.
It will not be perfect every night for the rest of their childhood. Its not finite.

All the best,
Susan

my son wet until he was 7 and i bought the miren alarm. worth very penny! its a hundred bucks, but that is 3 mos of night time pullups.

Hi J. there is no magic age, all 3 of my kids started being dry in the mornings around 17 months, but my middle child wet back to wetting the bed when he was 4, I thought he was just being lazy, trust me it's very common at that age, we had moved from our apartment into Navy Housing, in the apartment he and our older son shared the mater bedroom so he was used to having a bathroom in his room, I found out after a while he was afraid to get up, even though he had a night light in his room in the hall and in the bathroom, so his big brother 3 years older started going with him, until he just grew out of the fear of getting up by himself. Also sometimes they will wet at night if they get chilled or cold, or don't want to come out from under the covers to go cause they are warm and cozy. One more thing, by having him wear pull ups you are giving him the OK and the security to go in his pull up. I never put pullups, actually this was 20 years ago, i don't think they had pull ups. I made him change himself, help me strip the bed, and eventually he got over his problem. I went as far as telling him, if he could stay dry for one week, I would take him to toys r us and he could pick out a toy. Different things work for different kids, but we did make sure our son knew we were not pleased and it was not acceptible. J.

My daughter is also 4 1/2 and she is dry about 50% of the time when she gets up in the morning. We have tried all the tricks, but ultimately decided her sleep (and ours)is more important right now then giving up the pull-ups. Our pediatrician said they don't even begin to worry about nighttime wetting until the child is 9 or 10, so I'm definitely not going to worry about it at 4 1/2! Its a totally biological thing - when your child is able to wake up to go potty, he will.

I think all children are different. My adopted daughter, who is now 8, stopped wetting her pull-up somewhere around 5 or 5 1/2. And she just stopped. I tried all the things you mentioned, but none of those made it happen. My pediatrician said if she hadn't stopped by 6 we would check to see if there was a physical reason she was wetting her pull up at night. She really wanted to stop wearing the pull up.

I have a 4 year old adopted son, and he still wets his pull up at night, and doesn't seem phased at all about wearing one. So I will wait and see what happens with him. K.